Buyer pays for new truck using loose change

December 26, 2007

FRANKFORT, Ind. (AP) -- Paul Brant considers himself a penny pincher, but his savings in quarters and gold dollar coins really paid off. Brant, 70, used more than $25,000 in change to help buy a new Dodge Ram half-ton pickup truck last week -- 13 years after buying another truck with spare change. "(The old truck) didn't have four-wheel drive, and living in the country, I figured I better get a new one to help get me through the snow," he said. Brant said he was raised to be thrifty. His father always paid in cash and saved up loose change to take vacations. Brant has been storing his change for years, and estimated he had about $26,000 in coins for Friday's purchase. In 1994, he bought a Dodge pickup and a Dodge Neon using about $36,000 in quarters. "As long as you don't put your hands back in the till, it really adds up," he said. Brant stored his change in coffee cans, water jugs and piggy banks over the years, and was escorted by sheriff's deputies as he brought the rolled coins to the dealership. Keith Gephart, a Mike Raisor Chrysler Dodge and Jeep employee who sold Brant the truck, said the dealership called in an armored car to count and handle the coins. "No bank wants to take them," Gephart said. Brant said he saves up so much change by using vending machines at Chrysler in Kokomo, where he works. While he used quarters and dollars to help pay for the truck, the rest of the saved change went to his wife, Judy. "I got the dimes, nickels and pennies to spend how I want," she said.